Tana Fitzpatrick (Lakota/Crow/Ponca/Chickasaw) joined the University of Oklahoma in March 2022 as the Associate Vice President of Tribal Relations. Prior to joining the university, Tana served the U.S. Congress as a policy analyst in the Library of Congress’s Congressional Research Service. While at CRS, Tana advised members of Congress and their staff as the expert on matters involving tribal lands and natural resources.
Tana’s career also includes four years in the federal executive branch, beginning with the U.S. Department of the Interior as a Senior Counselor to the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs, with later roles in the White House Office of Management and Budget and the National Indian Gaming Commission. In addition to federal service, Tana worked as an attorney for two tribal communities in Arizona. She served the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community as a tribal prosecutor and worked as in-house counsel for the Gila River Indian Community.
Tana earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Spanish from Oklahoma City University and a Juris Doctorate from Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Tana is a member of the Crow Tribe of Montana and a descendent of the Lakota Sioux, Ponca, and Chickasaw nations.
Evelyn Castro Cox (CHamoru), Ph.D. is the Native Nations Center for Tribal Policy Research, Research Project Manager at the University of Oklahoma. She holds a BA in English from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She obtained an MLIS as well as a Graduate Certificate in Archival Studies in 2018 and a Ph.D. in Information Studies in 2025 all from the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Oklahoma. She is a wife and proud mother as well as a retired public-school teacher and coach who continues to work in education at multiple levels and in various capacities. Evelyn is also a 2016-2018 SAA Mosaic Program Fellow, a 2018 AAPB Public Broadcasting Preservation Fellow, an EASP Scholar, a 2024 DFCAS Graduate Research Fellow, a 2024-2025 Eugene Garfield Doctoral Dissertation Fellow, and a 2025 AAUW Fellow. Her areas of interest are at the intersection of culture, technology, archives, information access, ethics, and representation, particularly around the use of technology for social, generational, and cultural perpetuation and transference. Evelyn’s personal and professional work centers around promoting and supporting equitable representation and access for Indigenous and underrepresented voices and vantage points while also working to bridge the divides that exists in society and within institutional organizations. Her dissertation research sought to gain a better understanding of archival recordkeeping infrastructure in an Indigenous context, examining where Indigenous and Western ontology, methodology, theory, and praxis is at play while also examining how Indigenous communities utilize technology in tandem with traditional ways of knowing for continued cultural perpetuation.
Grace Fox is a Tribal Healthcare Policy Analyst at the University of Oklahoma’s Native Nations Center for Tribal Policy Research (NNCTPR), where she leads research and policy development under the NIH-funded “Improving Cancer Outcomes in Native American Communities” (ICON) grant. As the first policy analyst hired at the Center, Grace’s work focuses on understanding and addressing the structural barriers that impact cancer outcomes for the 39 federally recognized Tribes in Oklahoma, as well as Native communities across Indian Country.
A proud citizen of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, Grace brings a strong background in federal Indian policy, culturally grounded research, and advocacy. She earned her Master of Public Policy from the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government in 2024 as an Eisenhower Global Scholar. To fulfill her fieldwork requirement at Oxford, Grace worked in Washington, D.C. with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Tribal Relations. Her experience supporting Tribal food sovereignty and economic development initiatives during that time directly inspired her dissertation, which examined how flexible federal funding can be leveraged to uphold the federal trust responsibility while advancing sustainable, community-led development.
Grace earned her bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in 2023, graduating cum laude with a double major in Psychology and Ethnicity & Race Studies (Native American/Indigenous Studies). Her leadership and academic achievements have been recognized through several prestigious honors, including the Gates Scholarship, the Udall Undergraduate Scholarship, and the 2023 Udall Native American Congressional Internship, during which she served at the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Education.
Originally from Edmond, Grace now lives in Norman, Oklahoma. Outside of work, she loves traveling, playing tennis, learning languages, beading, fashion, bartending, playing the viola, and—most importantly—creating beautiful memories with her incredible friends, family, and two goofy Boston Terriers.
Quanah Yazzie is the Office Manager for the Native Nations Center at the University of Oklahoma. He is Diné (Navajo) from Rock Point, Arizona. He is of the Coyote Pass People Clan, born for the Zuni People Clan. Quanah grew up most of his life in the state of Arizona while studying in various areas including Graphic Design at Arizona State University / Mesa Community College, and Navajo Cultural Arts with an emphasis in Weaving and Silversmithing at Diné College. Before his position at OU, he worked as an Office Technician / Graphic Designer for the Judicial Branch of the Navajo Nation, and as a Professional Tutor at Diné College. Quanah also founded Coyote Pass Designs, a graphic design and web development company based in Arizona. He currently resides in Norman, Oklahoma with his partner, 2 Pomeranians, and cat.
Dr. Burkhart is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and has taught at OU since 2018. Before that he was Director and Associate Professor of American Indian Studies at California State University, Northridge. His research specialization is in Native American and Indigenous philosophy, specifically Indigenous land-based conceptions of well-being and environmental ethics. His 2019 book, Indigenizing Philosophy through the Land: A Trickster Methodology for Decolonizing Environmental Ethics and Indigenous Futures, claims that land is key to both the operations of coloniality as well the anti-colonial power that grounds Indigenous liberation. Land as a material, conceptual, and ontological foundation for Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and valuing provides a framework for Indigenous environmental ethics that can also function as an anti-colonial force for sovereign Indigenous futures. His current book project, As Strong as the Land that Made You: Native American and Indigenous Philosophies of Well-Being through the Land extends the land-based methodologies into reflections on both environmental and individual health for Native people and Native Nations. Burkhart is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma with roots in the Jaybird Creek community of Northeastern Oklahoma as well as the Indian Wells community of the Navajo Nation in Arizona. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Indiana University. “I am honored to take a role in the all-important work of creating, growing, and continuing respectful and supportive relationships between academics and Native Nations,” Burkhart said. “Native people have often been viewed as objectives of study rather than as living people with existing frameworks of knowledge, governance, and kinship that shape their understanding of themselves as sovereign nations with sovereign futures. Part of the goal of my work in the Native Nations Center will be to help researchers frame their work with and in relation to Native Nations through this lens,” Burkhart adds.
Since receiving my Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma in 1997, I have held several tenured academic appointments, including faculty positions at the University of New Mexico and Oklahoma State University.
From 2007 to 2012, I had the opportunity of serving my tribe, the Chickasaw Nation, as the Administrator of the Division of History and Culture. During my time there, I had the honor of overseeing the curation and launch of the Chickasaw Cultural Center in Sulphur, OK and directing the museums, archives, language programs, as well as the Chickasaw Press, the first tribal publishing house of its kind.
My research falls within two primary areas: (1) Tribal history and culture in Indian Territory and Oklahoma; and (2) issues of Native American representation and cultural production. I have published book chapters and articles on these topics in such peer-reviewed journals as American Quarterly, American Studies, Studies in American Indian Literature, and American Indian Quarterly.
My first book, which received the American Book Award, focused specifically on Chickasaw history. Listening to Our Grandmothers’ Stories: The Bloomfield Academy for Chickasaw Females, 1852-1949 (2000; 2007) was published by the University of Nebraska Press. Bloomfield represents one of the rare instances in the 19th century of a Native community seizing control of its children’s formal education. My second book, a collection of essays co-edited with Amy Lonetree titled, The National Museum of the American Indian: Critical Conversations (2008), focuses on issues of representation and cultural production and provides the first comprehensive look at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). My current research examines the state of Oklahoma’s American Indian identity as it is manifested in popular culture, including commemorations, sculpture, performances, and museums beginning with the famous “marriage” of Miss Indian Territory to Mr. Cowboy Oklahoma on the steps of the Capitol at the time of statehood.
Serving as the Chair of the Native American Studies Department at OU is one of the highlights of my career—I have loved OU all of my life. Working with our students, with our faculty, and with the Native nations and communities of Oklahoma is truly a privilege.
Copeland Hall Room 225
860 Van Vleet Oval
Norman, OK 73019
nnc@ou.edu | (405) 325-4553